Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

362 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:361• The Labour Party’s Lord Judd (middle photo) accused Israel of“screwing” Gaza. He also claimed that “no people paid a higher pricefor the creation of the State of Israel than the Palestinian people.”• Lord Phillips of Sudbury (right photo) blamed American Jews for theUS decision to vote against the Palestinian bid. He said that “if necessary”the UK should be independent of the United States, “which is ina particular relationship with the huge and powerful Jewish communitythere.” Lord Phillips also found time to characterize Israeli plansto build new homes in E1 as a colonial initiative (“3,000 new colonistsin east Jerusalem”) and made a favorable reference to Hamasleader Ismail Haniyeh: “I was immensely impressed by the man.”While the British House of Lords was busy condemning all thingsIsrael, researchers at Eastern Europe’s top academies were seeking explanationsfor the outbreaks in antisemitic phenomena in their countries. I hadasked András Kovács, professor at the Nationalism Studies Program andacademic director of the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University,Budapest, to guest edit a special issue of the JSA on EasternEurope. Dr. Kovács then assembled researchers in Hungary, Poland,Romania, and Slovakia to produce Volume 4, No. 2—Special Issue onEastern Europe—which yielded the finest and most comprehensive originalresearch to date for the JSA. We welcome all these authors, and thank themfor their enlightening and significant contributions to the field of antisemitismstudy.It was another busy year in antisemitism, but your readership and supportof the JSA’s efforts to advance the scholarly understanding of it makessuch ugliness a bit easier to live with—we feel a little less alone. Here ishoping that 2013 will not be as ugly.Steven K. BaumNeal E. RosenbergEditors, Journal for the Study of Antisemitismhttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12260#.UM24qaV5n0c